One other book under review, “Speak,” by Laurie Halsey Anderson, which includes a short, graphic description of a rape, was deemed instructional, and allowed to remain in the school.

“I congratulate them for doing what's right and removing the two books,” Professor Scroggins told the Columbus, Indiana, Republic newspaper. “It's unfortunate they chose to keep the other book.”

School officials stressed that the move was not a judgment call on the merit of the books, but a decision on whether the books were appropriate for high school students.

“We very clearly stayed out of discussion about moral issues,” Republic School Superintendent Vern Minor told the Republic newspaper. “Our discussions from the get-go were age-appropriateness.”

Mr. Minor said “Twenty Boy Summer” sensationalized sexual promiscuity and included questionable language, drunkenness, lying to parents, and a lack of remorse, while “Slaughterhouse Five” contained crude language and adult themes that are more appropriate for college-age students, according to the Republic newspaper.

“We just felt that of the three books, the two we have pulled aren't age-appropriate and send the wrong message,” board member Ken Knierim told the UPI.

“Vonnegut was outraged,” writes Mr. Hendricks, “but surely appreciated the irony of burning a book whose narrative centers on the allied firebombing of Dresden during World War II."

"So were he still alive, I imagine the author would be rolling his eyes at the thought that his 1969 book about young men dying for a cause they couldn’t fathom – its subtitle is “The Children’s Crusade” – was deemed unfit for young eyes in 2011,” Hendricks added.

As Hendricks points out, there’s probably no better way to get these Republic high schoolers to read Vonnegut and Ockler than to ban them.